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National iH^monal Assoriattott 



OFFICEIS: \A/ASHINGTON, D. C. 




OFFICERS 



President 

MR JUSTICE JOHN M. HARLAN 

Vice-Presiaents 

HON. GEORGE B. CORTELYOU 

HON. HENRY B. F. MACFARLAND 

MR. JUSTICE DAVID J. BREWER 

HON. JOHN F. DILLON 

HON. HENRY CABOT LODGE 

HON. JOSEPH H. CHOATE 



Secretary 

MR. FRANKLIN W. COLLINS 

Assistant Secretary 

MR.PAULE. SLEMAN 

Treasurer 

HON. MILTON E. AILES 

Vice-President Rlggs National Bank. 
Washington. L». C. 



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Mr. Justice John M. Harlan, of Kentucky 

Mr. Justice David J. Brewer, of Kansas 

Hon. George B. Cortelvou, of New York 

Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts 

Admiral George Dewey, U. S. Navy 

Brig.-Gen. George B. Davis, U. S. Army 

Governor Curtis Guild, Jr., of Massachusetts 

Governor George L. Sheldon, of Nebraska 

Hon. Joseph H. Choate. of New York 

General Horace Porter, of New York 

Dr. Andrew D. White, of New York 

Judge John F. Dillon, of New York 

Mr. Justice Josiah A. Van Orsdel, of Wyoming 

Hon. Henry B. F. Macfarland, of the District of Columbia 

Hon. Milton E. Ailes, of the District of Cokmibia 

Hon. Frank A. Vanderlip, of New York 

Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, of Maryland 

Hon. Jesse Wilson, of Indiana 

Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, of New York 

Mr. Samuel W. Woodward, of the District of Columbia 

Mr. George R. Peck, of Illinois 

Hon. Philip M. Ashford, of Ohio 

Mrs. Gertrude Atherton, of California 

Mr. William H. Ball, of Pennsylvania 

Mr. Aldis B. Browne, of the District of Columbia 

Mr. William E. Curtis, of Illinois 

Hon. George W. Dixon, of Illinois 

Mr. George W. Evans, of the District of Columbia 

Hon. Henry D. Estabrook, of New York 

Mr. George A. King, of the District of Columbia 

Hon. Jasper L. McBrien, of Nebraska 

Mr. Thomas C. Noye.s, of the District of Columbia 

Mr. Stanton Peelle, of the District of Columbia 

Mr. Arthur Perkins, of Connecticut 

Hon. George E. Roberts, of Illinois 

Mr. Paul E. Sleman, of the District of Columbia 

Mr. J. Henry Small, Jr., of the District of Columbia 

Mr. Sanford H. Steele,- of New York 

Mr. Franklin W. Collins, of Nebraska 



National iH^mnrial AfiBnnattnn 



^ Washington, D. C, February 12, 1908. 

<^ 

To all Patriotic and Appreciative Americans: 

- It is our conviction — and this we believe you will share — • 
^^ — that the debt America owes to Alexander Hamilton is im- 
^ measurable. 

It has been said by a discerning writer that "he, more than 
any other of our early statesmen, did the thinking of his 
time." 

By those who have made painstaking and discriminating 
study of the events of our early history, it is confidently 
asserted that Hamilton more than any other man was instru- 
mental in creating the government of the United States. Cer- 
tain it is he conceived and created our entire fiscal system. 

Both in war and peace, he was the trusted comrade, coun- 
selor and confidant of Washington. 

He not only shaped the Constitution but later saved it from 
ignominious defeat. It was Hamilton also who first suggested 
the doctrine of its implied powers. 

To him is America indebted not only for national unity but 
for national integrity and security. 

"He caught the drowning credit of America by the locks 
and dragged it into life." 

With w^hat seems to us to have been almost more than mortal 
vision, he peered into the future and made bountiful provision 
for all our national needs. 

He is acknowledged to have been America's foremost con- 
structive statesman, and as such having wrought mightily for 
us, merits the undying gratitude of all his countrymen. 

Niebuhr characterizes him as "great as the greatest." 

Of him Guizot said : 

"Hamilton must be classed among the men who have best 
known the vital principles and fundamental conditions of gov- 
ernment. There is not in the Constitution of the United 
States an element of order, of force, of duration, which he 
has not powerfully contributed to introduce into it and cause 
to predominate." 



And Talleyrand : 

"I have known nearly all the marked men of my time, but 
never one on the whole equal to Hamilton. He divined 
Europe." 

In our own times, Joseph Chamberlain, speaking in Guild 
Hall, recently declared : 

"Of all the remarkable men produced by the revolutionary 
period the greatest was Alexander Hamilton." 

And James Bryce (whom all Americans have learned to 
love), in his "American Commonwealth," after comparing 
him favorably with Washington, pays him this exalted tribute : 

"Equally apt for war and civil government, with a profun- 
dity and aptitude of view rare in practical soldiers and states- 
men, he stood in the front rank of a generation never sur- 
passed in history — a generation which includes Burke, Fox, 
Grattan, Von Humboldt, Wellington, and Napoleon." 

At the opening meeting of this Association the same high 
authority (now the British Ambassador) spoke in highest 
praise of Hamilton and the project to honor his memory, say- 
ing: "Hamilton was a thinker for the world, one of universal 
history's exceptional and brilliant men. His genius is worked 
into the very body and tissue of your institutions. I agree 
with Senator Lodge that his description of Hamilton as the 
greatest constructive statesman of the nation is not overpraise." 

No other American statesman, wath the possible exception 
of Washington, has won such lasting fame throughout the 
world as he, or deservedly gained such prestige from those 
qualified to speak. 

Probably no man stands higher in American jurisprudence 
than Chancellor Kent. He said : 

"Hamilton did more with his tongue and pen than any 
other man, not only with reference to the origin and adoption 
of the Federal Constitution, but also to create and establish 
public credit; and defend the Government and its measures 
under the wise and careful administration of Washington." 

Likewise Ambrose Spencer, also a profound jurist of the 
period and a political opponent, eulogizes him as follows : 

"Alexander Hamilton was the greatest statesman this coun- 
try has ever produced. In power of reasoning Hamilton was 
the equal of Webster, and more than that can be said of no 
man. In creative power Hamilton was infinitely Webster's 



superior, and in this respect was endowed as God endows the 
most gifted of our race." 

Of him Dr. John Lord (in his Beacon Lights) says: 

"There is one man in the poHtical history of the United 
States whom Daniel Webster regarded as his intellectual 
superior — and this was Alexander Hamilton." 

No finer tribute was ever paid by one statesman to the genius 
of another than that of Webster to Hamilton, when he said : 

"He smote the rock of the national resources and abundant 
streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse 
of public credit and it sprang upon its feet. The fabled birth 
of Minerva from the brain of Jove was hardly more sudden 
or more perfect than the financial system of the United 
States as it burst forth from the conceptions of Alexander 
Hamilton." 

President Daniel C. Gilman pays high homage to Hamil- 
ton's spotless integrity as well as transcendent ability, and 
says: 

"Hamilton now stands above reproach among the immor- 
tals." 

Mr. Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court of the United 
States says : 

"None of the patriotic statesmen of the revolutionary period 
deserves to be held in more affectionate remembrance by lovers 
of our free institutions than Hamilton. It might be deemed 
extravagant to affirm that we owe the adoption of our present 
Constitution to some one particular person. But it is quite 
safe to say that that momentous result was due as much to 
Hamilton as to any single individual in our early history. All 
admit that in securing the acceptance of the Constitution by 
the people of the requisite number of states, his services were 
pre-eminent. * * * y[y cordial wishes are for the suc- 
cess of the movement to perpetuate, by monument or in some 
other appropriate way, the memory of the extraordinary man 
and patriot whose genius for public affairs has rarely been 
equalled, never excelled, in any country. Visitors from other 
countries may well be surprised that they do not find at the 
National Capital a conspicuous monument to Alexander Ham- 
ilton. Let us hope that the past neglect of the country will 
be remedied by the success of the plan on hand." 

And Mr. Justice Brewer, of the same august tribunal, says : 

"I am heartily in sympathy with the proposition to place a 
suitable statue of Hamilton in this city. To few men is this 



country more indebted than to Alexander Hamilton, who was 
emphatically one of those, of whom we often hear but seldom 
see, a constructive statesman. His labors in framing and 
securing- the adoption of the Constitution and in creating that 
financial system which still obtains in this country and which 
has given to it unlimited credit throughout the world, entitles 
him to the gratitude due every patriotic citizen of the United 
States. I shall be very glad to see accomplished this act of 
tardy justice." 

Likewise the i)resent Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. George 
Bruce Cortelyou, in a recent tribute to Hamilton : 

"If you were asked to designate from among all the men of 
the colonial and revolutionary period of our history that one 
who most fully realized the ideas we have in mind when we 
speak of a constructive statesman, the name of Hamilton 
would instantly suggest itself as an answer to the inquiry. 
From the time when, a boy of i8, he was firing the hearts of 
the colonists by his denunciation of the misrule of the mother 
country, to the hour when he went to his death at Weehawken, 
his active mind seems to have been planning measures of the 
greatest moment for the benefit of the land of his adoption." 

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, in an address 
at the initial meeting of the association said : 

"Hamilton was a brilliant soldier who led a charge that 
carried a redoubt at Yorktown; he was the greatest political 
writer of his time; he was a great lawyer and a great orator, 
and, after all these years which have passed, it may be truly 
said that he was the greatest constructive statesman whom the 
nation has known. 

"It is not creditable to the nation that there should be no 
statue in Washington to the man who did more than any other 
to organize the nation, and I hope that I shall live to see the 
day when the statue shall stand before the Treasury, looking 
toward the Capitol." 

Encomiums need not be multiplied. 

Surely such a man has deserved well of his country, and his 
memory should be perpetuated as long as our country lives 
among the nations. 

What have we done to show our appreciation of the match- 
less services and sterling worth of this nation-builder ? 



Among the many monuments and statues erected in the 
parks and open places of the Nation's Capital to perpetuate 
the memory of our distinguished and deserving dead, we scan 
the various pedestals in vain for any sculptured figure of or 
memorial to Alexander Hamilton. To many this will seem 
incredible. To all it should seem intolerable. 

Washington has been repeatedly and rightfully remembered. 
The Nation's love for our first President has found expression 
in at least three heroic figures in marble and bronze in various 
parts of the city, in addition to the splendid shaft that rises 
on the banks of the Potomac. 

Hamilton, on whom Washington leaned most heavily, both 
in war and peace — "his chief support, his oracle and guide," 
has been overlooked. 

Remarkable to relate, the American people have permitted 
over lOO years to elapse since he left us, without taking any 
steps looking to the erection of a suitable memorial to him at 
the seat of government. 

To us this neglect seems unpardonable. 

An organization has therefore been effected, national in its 
scope, to accomplish this long delayed act of simple justice. 
A charter has been obtained under the laws of the District 
of Columbia, and a determined effort will be put forth in 
every section of the country to raise the funds required for 
this purpose. 

It is believed that one of the best and most appropriate sites 
in Washington is available and that a magnificent memorial to 
the man whose memory we cherish, may be secured at a total 
expenditure of $100,000. None but the finest of designs, ma- 
terials, and workmanship will be permitted to enter into the 
structure. 

The project has received the warmest commendation of 
the President of the United States, who writes : 

"I heartily endorse the movement in which you are en- 
gaged. It is little short of a scandal that there should be no 
monument to Alexander Hamilton in Washington. Wishing 
you all success. 

"Theodore Roosevelt.^' 

Strong and sympathetic words have also come from Hon. 
\\^hitelaw Reid, our embassador to England, and many other 
distinguished men. 

By unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees it has been 
decided to invite patriotic societies to select one member to act 



in conjunction with the Association in furtherance of its aims. 
The following are named: 

Sons of the American Revolution. 
Daughters of the American Revolution. 
Society of Colonial Wars. 
Society of the Cincinnati, 
Society of Colonial Dames. 
The Military Order of the Loyal Legion. 
The Hamilton Clubs of Chicago and Brooklyn have already 
given their strong approval of the movement and will aid in 
its consummation. 

Every admirer of Alexander Hamilton — which should mean 
every lover of his country and its institutions — is invited to be- 
come a subscriber to the fund and a member of the Association. 
The names of the men who constitute the Board of Trus- 
tees are a sufficient guarantee to all of the integrity of the 
undertaking and the fidelity of its management. 

Every dollar subscribed will be honestly accounted for, and 
conscientiously devoted to the object to be attained. 

Will you not join the promoters of this project in carrying 
it to complete and speedy success? 

All communications relating to the Association should be 
addressed to the Secretary, and all checks, drafts, money orders, 
or payments of money should be made payable to the Treas- 
urer. Hon. Milton E. Ailes, Vice-President of the Riggs Na- 
tional Bank of this city, who will receipt and account for the 
same. 

By order of the Association. 

Franklin W. Collins, 

Secretary. 
8 Jackson Place, Washing^ton, D. C. 



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